4of7Sisters Halle and Chloe Bailey pose for a portait at the House of Blues Friday September 14, 2018. The duo form the R&B group Chloe X Halle. (Michael Starghill, Jr.)Photo: Michael Starghill Jr., Contributor / Michael Starghill, Jr.

5of7Sisters Halle and Chloe Bailey pose for a portait at the House of Blues Friday September 14, 2018. The duo form the R&B group Chloe X Halle. (Michael Starghill, Jr.)Photo: Michael Starghill Jr., Contributor / Michael Starghill, Jr.

6of7Sisters Halle and Chloe Bailey pose for a portait at the House of Blues Friday September 14, 2018. The duo form the R&B group Chloe X Halle. (Michael Starghill, Jr.)Photo: Michael Starghill Jr., Contributor / Michael Starghill, Jr.

7of7Chloe X Halle photographed by Autumn de Wilde as part of Rodarte's Spring 2018 portrait series.Photo: Autumn de Wilde

With nearly 100 million people watching, sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey kicked off Super Bowl LIII with an angelic rendition of “America the Beautiful.” The Atlanta natives drew praise even from Houston superstar Beyoncé, who gushed about their talent on Instagram.

Their Super Bowl performance was another bright moment in a year that included opening for Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s recordbreaking On the Run II tour.

Tonight, Chloe and Halle, just 20 and 18 years old, respectively, are up for two Grammys — best new artist and best urban contemporary album — for their first full-length album, “The Kids Are Alright” on Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment label.

In a world of Instafamous pop singers, the sisters are anomalies, transcending musical genres with their alternative R&B, indie sound. They write and produce their own music and play their own instruments. They harmonize acrobatically with pitch perfection. And their boho-cool style and long locks have garnered attention from major fashion designers and magazines.

More Information

61st Annual Grammy Awards

7 p.m. Sunday on CBS

Read More

But it’s their connection to Beyoncé that has propelled Chloe and Halle toward stardom. Queen Bey came across the sisters’ cover of her hit song “Pretty Hurts” on YouTube in 2014 shortly after they had moved with their family from Atlanta to Los Angeles. The duo was signed to a $1 million contract. Today, their YouTube video has more than 16 million views.

The pair was starstruck, like many are, at the first meeting with Beyoncé, who was shooting a video at the time. She wore a sparkly jumpsuit and looked like “an angel,” said Halle, who is not named for actress Halle Berry. (Her parents wanted to name her “Hailey,” but “Hailey Bailey sounded weird.”)

The sisters’ relationship with Beyoncé quickly became a mentoring one, in which the entertainer offered sage advice such as: “Trust your gift and let the world catch up to you.”

Halle explained: “It’s beautiful that (Beyoncé) understands we don’t want to dumb down ourselves for anyone or change the way we make music just to fit society’s standards. She appreciates that, and she always lets us know that our music is ahead of its time right now and tells us (to) just let the world catch up.”

It seems the world is getting it.

In 2016, Halle and Chloe, who perform under the name “Halle x Chloe,” released their five-song debut album, “Sugar Symphony,” and they had cameos in Beyoncé’s “Lemonade”video before opening the European dates of Beyoncé’s Formation tour. They sang the national anthem during the NFL draft in 2017 and earned regular parts on the Freeform comedy “Grown-ish” as track-star twins Jazz and Sky. They even wrote, produced and performed the show’s theme song.

They also performed for Michelle Obama, as the opening act to her keynote speech at SXSW Music Festival in Austin.

The sisters know they have a special sound, like a Janelle Monae, that defies lables.

They describe it as “alternative, harmonious and edgy but calm … a fusion of things we love.” It’s also peppered with “808 beats,” like the hypnotic 1980s drum-machine sounds. Their singing harmonies, sometimes a capella, bring an ethereal quality to their music and are executed effortlessly.

Most of their music is recorded in their home studio in Los Angeles.

“It’s really interesting because when you work with someone as close as your sister, it kind of just happens naturally, and that’s something I thank God for,” Chloe said.

The Bailey sisters have been singing, and even acting, all of their lives.

Growing up in Atlanta, 3-year-old Chloe snagged a role in the 2003 musical movie “The Fighting Temptations” as the little-girl version of Beyoncé’s character. They also had small parts in the Queen Latifah movie “The Last Holiday.”

They played cello and violin and were homeschooled. Halle later taught herself to play guitar, and Chloe took up piano, both by watching YouTube tutorials.

They performed at local events, talent shows and anywhere their parents would approve. Fans urged them to post cover songs on YouTube, so they launched their YouTube channel at ages 13 and 11, with a cover of Beyoncé’s “Best Thing I Never Had,” which their now 27-year-old sister filmed for them. (They also have a younger brother, 12, who prefers basketball over singing any day.)

“Atlanta was our safe haven,” Halle said. “We would go around town, actually to, like, nightclubs, like these two little girls. Our dad would take us, and it would be us singing anywhere possible.”

They got the attention of Ellen DeGeneres, who invited them to her daytime talk show, and they won Radio Disney’s music-show contest, “The Next Big Thing.”

“Ever since we were little girls, we’ve always kind of known in our hearts that we would be doing this. We just never knew how,” Chloe said. “I feel like if there wasn’t YouTube, we’d figure out some sort of way to make it happen. … I never thought posting a cover online would get us this far.”

They also never imagined being models in fashion shoots or gracing the pages of some of the world’s most coveted fashion magazines.

They’ve walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana and were featured in Rodarte’s fall 2018 look book, titled “Women Who Inspire Us,” with “Creed” actress Tessa Thompson and “Black Panther” actress Danai Gurira. Also, shoe brand Teva partnered with the sisters for their “Worn by Chloe x Halle” collection. This month, they are on the cover of Essence magazine’s first digital issue.

At the House of Blues in Houston, Halle and Chloe go back and forth over their favorite clothing pieces. For Halle, it’s a long black coat; for Chloe it’s a pair of off-white jeans that flatter her bottom, but she accidentally shrank them in the washing machine.

A stylist helps them with onstage looks, like the long pink Gucci gown Chloe wore for the BET awards in 2017 in which they accepted the Viewers Choice award for “Lemonade” on Beyoncé’s behalf. The gown was so long she had to wear super high Giuseppe Zanotti heels.

Beyoncé’s lessons for the sisters about fashion, follow much like her advice on music. Wear what you want and don’t let anyone put you in a box.

“We are becoming more comfortable in our skin,” Chloe said. “We’re also learning to like what flatters our shape, stuff like that. Just standing into our own beings, and I think that’s pretty cool.”

The Houston native covers fashion, beauty and fitness, as well as other lifestyle topics. Joy has interviewed countless fashion designers and celebrities, including Houston's own Beyonce, the late Oscar de la Renta, Tory Burch and more. She also writes regularly about children's books and is the author of "Ava and the Prince: The Adventures of Two Rescue Pups" (LongTale), a picture book about her own rescue boxer dogs.

A former competitive ice skater and professional coach, Joy started Year Of Joy, a nonprofit organization, to spread joy to children from underserved communities. Since 2017, she has touched more than 700 children with her holiday ice-skating party at Discovery Green, and other cultural and educational events.

In 2017, Joy was honored with the Houston Humanitarian award for her community involvement.